The present invention relates to a visibility adjusting method and an apparatus for adjusting a driver's forward visibility by providing a lower end of a windshield with a visibility adjusting section, and more particularly to a technique for achieving an improvement of a visibility near the vehicle at an extremely low speed range, an increase of an amount of lighting within a vehicle and an enlargement of a visible range by a passenger on an assistant driver's seat.
Conventionally, there is known a visibility adjusting method of a vehicle in which a lower end of a windshield is shielded, and the forward visibility of a driver is adjusted, thereby enhancing the safety as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-211355 for example.
In such a conventional visibility adjusting method of a vehicle, however, since it is made such that a forward visibility by the driver is adjusted by shielding a lower end of the windshield, the visibility near the vehicle is blocked at the time when the vehicle runs at an extremely low speed range such as the time of backing the vehicle in to a garage, the time of passing closely-by and the like, whereby there is a case that the driver feels insecure.
Further, in the conventional visibility adjusting method of a vehicle, since it is made such that the forward visibility by the driver is adjusted by shielding the lower end of the windshield, an amount of lightening within the vehicle is reduced, and the visibility of the passenger on the assistant driver's seat is blocked, whereby there is a case that the passenger on the assistant driver's seat is annoyed.
The present invention has been accomplished to solve the problems mentioned above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a visibility adjusting method and an apparatus of a vehicle which can improve a visibility near a vehicle in an extremely low speed range, increase an amount of lightening and enlarge a visible range of a passenger on an assistant driver's seat.
Further, another object of the present invention is to provide a visibility adjusting method and an apparatus of a vehicle which can uniformize an angle of a parting line of a visibility adjusting section while securing a sufficient forward visibility even during medium and low speed running such as the time of running on an urban area or the like, by limiting an area of the visibility adjusting section to be small.